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The objective of this project is to educate joint senior leaders on the importance of the strategic effects of operational contract support (OCS). Contracting for goods and services in the contingency operational environment is a mission-enabling necessity; however, analyzing the strategic effects of contracting is not well practiced and rarely understood by military leaders—from lieutenants to generals. Commanders in the field are taught to think of the costs literally, as tax dollars spent to enhance mission effectiveness. However, the less literal costs and the associated effects of choosing to contract for goods or services are largely ignored. This project explores the use of OCS in contingency environments, and the positive and negative effects OCS decisions have on the larger, strategic military mission, and on other instruments of power. The case studies and vignettes developed by this research examine how second- and third-order OCS effects impact the United States' military mission and general interests. The products developed during the course of this project consist of case studies and vignettes for use in Joint Professional Military Education coursework.

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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Supplemental documents may be accessed by permission only. Access is restricted to JPME instructors, employees of the J4, Logistics Directorate, and U.S. Naval Postgraduate School faculty. To access supplements please contact the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School library.

Part I of this study will examine the evolution of the U.S. active air defense posture between 1946-1966. Active defense shall be defined as those military programs designed to destroy attacking aircraft and missiles after ...

The mission of the United States Naval Academy speaks clearly of three pillars of midshipman development: moral, mental, and physical. Each is equally important; however, the mission of the Naval Academy to develop midshipmen ...

Contracting for supplies and services within a contingency and deployed operational environment has become a vital necessity. Despite the last decade and a half of armed conflict, the military services as a whole have done ...